News Story

Joshua Budram Takes Flight

Joshua Budram stands under a sign for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Celebrate Black History Month

Aerospace engineering junior Joshua Budram has always been fascinated by flight. As a child in Clarendon, Jamaica, he would run outside at the sound of an aircraft to spot it in the sky. Even through hard times, he stays true to his dreams: “There’s still that inner child in me that wants to fly,” he says.

Finding joy in the challenges of math

Moving to the U.S. at 11 years old, Budram faced obstacles to adjusting. Middle school math proved very challenging—until his seventh grade teacher helped it make sense. By high school at Charles Herbert Flowers in Prince George’s County, he had learned to love the challenges math posed, spending hours on one problem for the joy of “coming closer and closer to solving it.” He took the Project Lead the Way pre-engineering program and the Aviation Honors Ground School course and began to think aerospace engineering, which combines his loves of flight and math, was in his future.

Clearing financial hurdles with a scholarship

Though Budram earned acceptance to the Clark School after high school, he couldn’t attend because of financial hurdles. He didn’t give up. After earning his associate’s degree at Prince George’s Community College, he was accepted, again, this time as a Clark Opportunity Transfer Scholar. He’s grateful to be with likeminded students coming from similar backgrounds, “just trying to figure out the university together,” he says. And he appreciates the support systems in place, including his mentors and especially Coordinator for Retention Guerda Mervilus, “one of the biggest cheerleaders on our team.”

Joshua Budram stands in front of his research poster

A campus leader who continues to defy barriers

In only his first year at the Clark School, Budram is the PeerForward campus ambassador for his former high school and is part of the Southern Management Leadership Program for transfer students, which emphasizes entrepreneurship and service. He’s a member of the Bethel Campus Fellowship, the Caribbean Student Association, the student chapter of the American Institute for Aerospace and Aeronautics, and the Black Engineers Society housed in CMSE. “As a Black male, I’m often met with barriers because of the color of my skin,” he says. “But rather than let that determine my opportunities, it gives me the motivation to push forward.”

Achieving professional and personal dreams

The summer before he entered the Clark School, Budram achieved one of his dream goals, contributing to research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His work tracking and categorizing coronal mass ejections (plasma bursts from the sun) promises to improve space weather forecasting to better plan for rocket launches and other events. Another achievement that brings him pride? Purchasing his first car—after saving up for almost four years. Next up? He’s considering graduate school while independently pursuing training to become a pilot. “It can be done,” says Budram, who looks up to a mentor, a pilot and aerospace engineer “who looks like me,” he says. “It’s a lot of work, but it can be done.”

Published February 4, 2026